Daybreakers
So, Daybreakers didn’t screen for critics, and I get why: It’s undeniably a B movie, the sort of thing that will appeal to those willing to check their brains at the door and have fun for 100 minutes or so. But dammit, some critics like B movies too!
Me, for example. I was a hair’s-breadth away from having Taken in my top ten — there’s nothing better than a well-executed action flick for pure entertainment purposes. Throw in an interesting concept for flavor and you’ve got a surefire winner.
Enter Daybreakers. In a world ravaged by a mostly undiscussed plague that turned humans into vampires sometime in 2009, humans are a scarce commodity — hunted by a vampiric U.S. Army and handed over to a mega corporation so their blood can be farmed, it’s only a matter of time before things get dire. How dire? Absent a steady supply of human blood, vampires turn into hideous bat-like creatures instead of suave Draculas. Think Man-Bat from the “Batman” comic book series.
Emotionally conflicted vampiric scientist Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is working on a blood substitute for the mega corporation that will free the humans being milked of their blood and end the conflict between vamps and humans. But is head honcho Charles Bromley (Sam Neill) interested in saving humanity, or creating a tiered system: Delicious human blood for the wealthy, watered down synthetic for the plebes.
You can probably guess to that question — this isn’t exactly a film that traffics in subtlety. Evil corporations and bloodthirsty vampire army on one side; noble Edward and the humans he befriends on the other. Well, humans and one cured vampire: Elvis Cormac (Willem Dafoe) has discovered a cure for the vampire “virus” that can be used to turn everyone human again. But is there enough time to save humanity?
Maybe, maybe not: That’s for round number two. Daybreakers closes by positioning itself nicely for a sequel, one of the more irritating trends in the post-Matrix B movie landscape.
This is a minor quibble, though. Daybreakers delivers pretty solidly where it counts: The action sequences are well-executed (it pretty much never gets old watching a vampire explode into flames after getting staked) and the concept is just interesting enough to carry the flimsy plot through its 98 minute running time.
As an added bonus, this is a return to the bloodsuckers of old. They don’t glitter in the sunlight: They burst into flames. Mirrors won’t reflect them. And they aren’t to be trifled with when they’re hungry. Twilight fans should be forced to watched this flick to see what real vampires are like.